Consultancy Service on Value Chains Study

VIETNAM COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
TOR for the consultancy service on value chains study

GENERAL CONTEXT OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The Vietnam Cooperative Enterprise Development (VCED) Project is co-implemented by SOCODEVI and CMARD2 and financed by Global Affairs Canada. The duration of the project is of 5 years, ending in March 2020.

VCED is an important capacity building project that expect to support agricultural cooperative in dairy milk and fruits value chains. This project aims to improve the Vietnamese cooperative sector contribution to gender-equitable economic growth and to farmers’ livelihood conditions. To achieve this, VCED Project will work at three different levels:

1. Establishment and strengthening of autonomous, profitable and sustainable agricultural cooperative enterprises in strategic value chains within the Vietnamese economy to become reference models for scaling up;
2. Improvement of productivity and quality of agriculture production in a sustainable manner at the farm level with added-value;
3. Support the Government and stakeholders of the cooperative sector in the establishment of an enabling environment for the cooperative development.

To establish sustainable, equitable (W/M), competitive and market oriented cooperative enterprises, the VCED project is adopting a value chain approach and is working with MARD Department of Cooperatives and Rural Development to improve the knowledge on specific value chains in which co-operatives supported by the VCED project are involved, namely the Pomelo value chain in Ben Tre, the Table Grapes value chain in Ninh Thuan, the Dragon Fruit in Binh Thuan, the Dairy value chain in Soc Trang and Lam Dong. This will help to identify conditions required to establish an enabling environment for large-scale market oriented agriculture cooperatives and to put forward opinion, goals, directions and solutions to promote collaboration and added value partnerships for those farmers owned co-operatives within the value chain.On MARD DoC’s perspective, this should also contribute more generally to the goal of transforming models of production organization (production relations) in agriculture, developing agricultural enterprises, cooperatives, farms.

CONTEXT for the study

Vietnam agriculture is seen as diverse and highly potential for future growth with promising products.

However, the growth of these agricultural products is currently faced with several challenges. Due to various reasons, the supplies of these products remain unstable, fluctuates greatly, leading to the phenomenon of “good harvest yet low price, good price yet bad harvest” which affects negatively not only the producers of these products but also related enterprises and cooperatives. In addition, most of these products and agricultural value chains are having problems regarding product quality, hygiene and food safety and their competitiveness in domestic and international markets remain severely limited.

For the growth of agriculture in the new era, modern, efficient, large scale cooperatives are part of the solution to improve productivity at the farm level, to manage the quality of agricultural products to meet the set standards, to ensure transparency and competitiveness, and to overcome impulsive and limited-scale type of production.

However, collaboration in agricultural production is still weak. Collaborating partners are not strong enough, there is a lack of leading agents capable of coordinating, directing and managing activities in the chains effectively. Farmers are yet to be systematically organized in organizations such as cooperation groups or cooperatives. Their dispersion increases transaction costs, and creates several challenges for the tasks of ensuring hygiene and food safety and improving quality of agricultural products. Policy mechanism and legal frameworks set by the Government are yet to be strong and suitable for promoting collaboration, solving disputes in production collaboration.

Recently, some forms of collaboration have emerged, such as large-field production zones, from-field-to-table production chains (close chain), production zones for exports, foreign supply chains or product value chains, or cooperatives. Nevertheless, the growth and expansion of these models still meet several difficulties. Sale of farmers’ products is still challenging, the issue of hygiene and food safety is yet to be thoroughly dealt with, competitiveness of Vietnam agricultural products is generally low. Efforts in attracting investment in agriculture is yet to gain desired results. In other words, as of present, both horizontal and vertical agricultural collaborations still have many limitations.

Purposes of the assignment

1. Do the mapping of the value chain focusing on the following products/value chains/provinces: milk and dairy products in Soc Trang and Lam Dong, dragon fruits in Binh Thuan, pomelo in Ben Tre, grapes in Ninh Thuan.
2. Collect and analyze data of/and evaluate the reality of collaboration in agricultural production and trading in each identify value chain/province
3. Put forward opinions, goals, directions and solutions to promote collaboration in agricultural production/trading and value-added partnerships for farmers and namely small farmers within the value chain.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES FROM THE CONSULTANT ASSIGNMENT

• 1. A study which will describe reality of each part of the value chain for the Pomelo production in Ben Tre, the Table Grapes production in Ninh Thuan, the Dairy production in Soc Trang and Lam Dong, the dragon fruit production in Binh Thuan:
• Map the organizational structure of the production of each product/ value chain; roles of stakeholders: producer, cooperation groups/ cooperatives, input and output enterprises
• The state of production in terms of scale and results of production and trading, and supply ability in each stage of the production process of the products/ value chains from producing ingredients to processing, trading and product distribution.
• The reality of applying norms and standards regarding quality of agricultural products, GAP procedure of agricultural production.
• Study and evaluate effective models of production organization and collaboration
• Evaluate the role of cooperatives in joint production and consumption model of agricultural products following value chains
• The progress of implementing policies to support the growth of products/ value chains at different localities.
• Advantages and risks in developing products/ value chains
• Drafting proposals on solutions for developing products/ value chains
• Identifying conditions required to establish an enabling environment for large-scale market oriented agriculture cooperatives and added value partnerships for farmers and namely small farmers within the value chain as for those farmers owned co-operatives within the value chain.

Report will present results and analysis for each product/value chain separately

Consultant will have access to previous studies drawn by experts from the VCED project.

2. Participate to a workshop in each province to

• Do presentation of the study for the specific targeted value chain within the province

• Gather ideas about solutions
  
  • to perfect and develop products/ value chains in focused production zones
  • and about how promote collaboration and added value partnerships for farmers and namely small farmers within the value chain as for those farmers owned co-operatives within the value chain.

3. Participate to a national workshop and do presentation of the study for all value chains and share ideas or solutions from the provincial workshops on strategies to develop targeted agricultural products in each province and to put forward solutions to promote collaboration and value-added partnerships for those farmers owned co-operatives within the value chain.

4. Collaborate with VCED and DoC on brief proposals on policy framework or on conditions to be established to enable environment for agriculture cooperatives or promote collaboration and added value partnerships for farmers, namely small farmers, within each value chain being studied.

SCHEDULE AND DEADLINES

October 31, 2017         Studies of products/ value chains, draft of general report and proposals
November 30, 2017      Provincial and National conferences
December 22, 2017       Final version of general report and proposals available to be submitted to the Secretariat Committee, and the Government

Please send your proposal before Sep 22nd, 2017, clearly specifying in the “subject box” of your @mail: “Proposal for value chains study” to the following @mail address: [email protected].